


The sum of memories

by Pearlislove



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bittersweet, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: 2017 Xmas Twice Upon a Time, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 16:37:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13170903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: The First Doctor found out that Bill was one of the glass people, and assumed her a spie. Yet, when they showed up in the tower to face the Twelfth Doctor, he knew she was good.How did Bill convince him?





	The sum of memories

**Author's Note:**

> Because Susan freaking Foreman needed a freaking cameo in this freaking episode.
> 
> And also plotholes
> 
> Yep

"You're a spie." The first Doctor sees Bill change, and he knows they've done a fatal mistake. "You're a spie for...for whoever they are!" Slowly, he inches closer. He grasp his labels, and he look at he...it. the glass person, it, is not moving, and he dares to be a bit bold. "What do you want? Why did you let us escape with the Captain?"   
  
The glass person seemed to hear him, because it smiles, and but then it suddenly morphs. It's features change, but it doesn't change back into the dark skinned girl, Bill, no...it becomes something much more familiar. Something much closer to The Doctor yet.   
  
"What are you running to, grandfather?" Her voice is soft, the smile on her face equally so. She's wearing her biker hat, and the beige coat, rhe clothes she'd worn the day that it all began.   
  
"No! You don't do that!" He protests, tries not to let his fear show as the copie smiles at him. Her smile, stolen and reused. "You leave Susan alone!" Contrary to his words he comes closer. He edges towards the clone, unable to resist the temptation as he reaches out his hand towards her.   
  
She takes it. Holds his hand within her soft fists, squeezing it and giving him a comfort he has not known in a long time.    
  
"How can you be so much like my Susan?" He asks, unsure if he wants to know the answer. He trembles, and almost forgets to breath, so stunned and affected by what is before  him.   
  
"I was so happy, grandfather. With David, and the children, and..." she pause, move her fingers across his palm slowly, smiling sadly. "You. You came back. It may not have been a choice, but you came back. But you don't know yet." She shakes her head, lets go and back away. "It's all so far ahead of you, that you don't know yet... but I do."   
  
"Know what?" He miss her. The moment her touch is gone he wants it back, logn to feel her holding him again though he knows he never will. He knows that not even this is real, but can't force the message into his head because he wants what is in front of him too badly to believe it is not true.   
  
Perhaps, he thought, his older self was the wiser one, who did not fall for such tricks with miss Potts.   
  
"Everything. I know everything that she remembers, because that's what we are." She morphs, again, and Susan goes. She is replaced by Bill, the dark haired lady once more standing there in front of him. "That's what we are. No evil, and no spies. Just glass bodies, that can be filled with memories of the dead. Everyone you ever loved, is here, and you can see them."    
  
Another morph. The Doctor does not have the time to answer her, or even organize his thoughts and feelings, before another face appears in front of him.   
  
"Katarina." The shy, darkhaired girl smiles at him, and then, she gets taller and her cheekbones more pronounced as her hair goes from brown to blonde. She is replaced. "Sara. No. You...she...they died.” He needs to stop. He knows he needs to stop, to back off and evaluate what is happening in a sensible manner, but it is too hard. He is letting the enemy in under his skin and they are slowly winning.   
  
"I am sorry I had to do that, Doctor." Bill is back, her eyes filled with sadness and tears. "But I had to make you understand. I, am me, because I am made up of the sum of my memories. If I have the memories of your granddaughter." She morphs into Susan, again, and just seeing his beloved girl appear before his eyes knocks the wind out of The Doctor. "I am Susan. And if I have the memories of, say, Polly, I will be Polly." As promised, Polly stood before The Doctor. She wore the pink dress she'd had when he last saw her, and her smile was the same as it had always been.   
  
"You...are not evil?" He said it slowly, his words more of a question than a statement. "You are...a shell, that is filled with memories of the deceased." He is hesitant, but it is starting to make sense and he thinks he is finally starting to understand.   
  
"The memories are copied when the person reach the point of their death. They are temporarily removed, their memories copied, before being returned to the moment of their death. "For the shortest moment, we resurrect the dead."   
  
"But that is not evil!" The Doctor could not believe it. It was not an evil plot, nor anything that  would harm anyone. In fact, it was quite the opposite. A chance for the dead to come back to speak to those who would listen. 

 

A chance for him to see those he missed the most again. 

 

“I know.” Bill smile, and The Doctor smile, too. “But I need you. I need you to help convince him, that we are who we are. That I am Bill Potts.” her eyes are dark and desperate, and he can see how badly those memories inside the glass body want to be acknowledged, to be counted as a real being.

 

He smiles, a tad sad as he realizes that Bill Potts is the form she now intends to keep. “I will, my girl. We shall go into the tower and convince him together. But...until then, may I have her, instead?Just until we are with my older self once more.” He looks at her, and he hopes she will understand. He prays she will find it in her to sympathise and agree. “Grant a dying man a little happiness, won’t you my dear?”

 

Bill smile, and nod. Her form morphes, and she takes on another person. Short hair dark hair, dark eyes and pale skin on the tiny body of a teenage girl. Another dress, the one she wore on Marinus, and her smiles is bigger and more vibrant than ever. “Grandfather!”

 

He smiles, his arms opening wide as she latches on to him, hugging him tight. He knows it is just a fleeting illusion, and that soon she will be Bill Potts once more, but for the time being, he revealed in having what he wanted.

 

Together, The Doctor and Susan walks to the tower, up the stairs to his older self. As they walk, The Doctor realizes, that he might just be a little less afraid.

 

That he might just be a little more ready.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments olease! They make my day :)


End file.
